All Locked Up?

[night owl]

this just may be one of those stupid questions, but are all of the doors to your ltc or any facility locked at night so that no one may enter unless they ring a bell or have one of those intercom units outside of the door to identify themselves before someone enters the building? i mean if the ltc building is their home shouldn't it be locked between certain hours? you certainly would lock the doors to your home at night, why not theirs??? our facility has at least two open doors that i know of that are open all night long and it gives me the willies to think that anyone could just walk in. i have no idea why they remain open.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

When the drug dealers figure out what an easy target small institutions are we'll probably get a JCAHO regulation- until then, security is another body to pay.

[MRed94]

Ours is locked....

MRed

[nurs4kids]

There IS a JCAHO regulation. I have no ideal of the specifics of it, but I know our hospital only recently started locking up. This started during JCAHO inspection, and continues. We are told it's because of regulations?? I can see in a LTC where you'd want to be locked, but to us it's been a pain in the *&&. Working nights, we have to order out because, of course the cafeteria isn't open. The only open entrances are through the ER and parking deck cross walk, so if we happen to forget to tell the delivery person to come through ER, we don't get to eat. It's also been a big burden for parents trying to come and go. It's also a big pain for smokers and for handicapped persons. I understand locking side entrances, but I feel they could put a guard at the main entrance and leave it open.

Just my 2cents worth

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

I work at a hospital for women and ALL of our exterior doors (except the lobby door) are locked 24/7 and accessible only by waving our name badge to the sensor or typing in a code. The lobby entrance is unlocked, BUT there's always a security guard you have to go past to get in. All of our pts are women, and we have a very large number of babies in the mother-baby units and NICU. I work night shift and right outside our unit door is the ambulance entrance (we don't have an ER--it's kinda weird), and I feel extra-comfortable knowing that no strangers can get in that door or ANY of our side doors.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

I checked my mother in laws "home" and it and the other one the corporation owns are kept locked from 7p to 7a. At hers there are employee card scanners at the kitchen and one side door. They have an enclosed porch that the smokers can use. They have one guard that patrols the grounds of both places but is not IN the building.

I think that they should BE LOCKED.

P

[klhs]

When I worked in LTC, the nite nurse locked the doors after the 2nd shift left. Then our facility installed doors that automatically lock... you have to push a button outside to enter and we had a code to key in to exit, and when the doors open for any reason there is an alarm. Personally, I like them being locked... feels much safer!